


You will see a better day

by Kingrey



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, it's nearly christmas so i decided to make eugene cry as a gift, this is just after the movie! because i care about early relationship new dream very much
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:13:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28265220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kingrey/pseuds/Kingrey
Summary: Eugene knows anxiety, remembers the long and terrible nights in the orphanage when it felt like his entire world was crumbling because of him. This is different, and familiar at the same time. It's a decade of ignoring everything he didn't want to deal with, plus a highly traumatising experience, all coming for him now, because it had to do so at some point.
Relationships: Eugene Fitzherbert | Flynn Rider/Rapunzel
Comments: 14
Kudos: 72





	You will see a better day

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO!!! It has been a While
> 
> I did say in my last fic I wouldn't post much until christmas but I still feel bad for it asfgdshn if i could i would spend my days writing new dream being soft :')  
> This is a secret santa gift for nerdee-gk on tumblr!! She's the angst Queen so I had to write an angsty thing for her :D But also it's christmas so I stayed soft asfgsdh I hope you'll like it!!

It hits Eugene the next Tuesday.

It's stupid, in a way. It hasn't been a week since he met Rapunzel, as weird as it may sound - he feels like he has known her for an eternity now, feels like she has known him for just as long, but perhaps it's the whole "finally being seen for who they are instead of who they pretend to be" that's skewing with his perception of time. His life isn't the same as it was one week ago, and he knows already he can never go back to that before, when each day felt like a trap slowly squeezing the life out of him. He doesn't know what the future holds, but as long as he can be in Rapunzel's company, as long as he can see her smile and laugh and be free, he thinks he will be fine. _They_ will be fine.

And that's how these last days went by; with Eugene believing, for the first time in a while, that things will look up for both of them. Rapunzel is free now, and he honestly thinks there's nothing else that can make him as happy, nothing else that can make his heart flutter as much as her discovering what life has to offer. This happiness is a foreign feeling, but he has no reason not to hold onto it, no reason to think this won't last.

Tuesday starts off as a day like any other since he came back to the Kingdom with Rapunzel. There's no big event, no fears of his suddenly becoming reality, not even a tiny nightmare to explain the shift. Eugene is in the library, searching for books Rapunzel might enjoy while she's attending a flash course on Corona's history that he's glad he could skip. He's hesitating about picking yet another story about adventures, because he loves them but he also wants Rapunzel to be able to read everything - before he realises that it's okay, she has all her life to do so now, and he softens at the idea of spending his own at her side.

He guesses the thought about Rapunzel's new found freedom led him to the still fresh memories of how it came to be. There's nothing else, really, and he knows it's silly, but as he picks up the book, his mind flashes back to his last moments, when he was too weak to do anything but be held by Rapunzel.

Just like that, his mood changes.

His stomach drops. The thoughts rush to the front of his mind all at once, and despite understanding what's happening, he can do nothing to stop his own spiralling. For a moment, his body feels like a separate entity entirely, hands starting to shake as he curses himself without sound, pleading with his emotions to leave him more time. They don't. The memory of the cold, and the pain, and the unbearable certainty that he was going to _die_ ; they all come out of their hiding place, a trap Eugene didn't know was laying in wait in his own mind.

He died. He _died_. His breathing picks up as he puts down the book carefully, slow and sluggish in his last attempt to calm down, but he already knows it's not working. He knows anxiety, remembers the long and terrible nights in the orphanage when it felt like his entire world was crumbling because of him. This is different, and familiar at the same time. It's a decade of ignoring everything he didn't want to deal with, plus a highly traumatising experience, all coming for him now, because it had to do so at some point.

His entire body is trembling now, but he's not cold. More than shivers, he thinks that his muscles are tensing as he tries to fight off his own feelings. There's also a bitter anger growing in himself, _at_ himself, and it's not helping any, but it keeps him grounded for a little more precious time. He can't have a breakdown in the library, or anywhere in the castle where everybody could find him.

_I need to go somewhere safe_ , he thinks distantly, looking at his trembling hands. His feet lead him to Rapunzel's room.

When he stumbles in, closing the door clumsily behind him, he's not sure if it's relief or fear he feels to see it empty. _Good_ , one part of him says, because no one, least of all Rapunzel, should have to deal with him in this state. _Good_ , he repeats himself as he sits heavily on her bed, some part of his scrambled mind worrying about being found alone in the Lost Princess' room - is this allowed? They wouldn't hang him for-

Hang him-

Eugene bits his lips, nails biting into the palm of his hands as he hunches over. This is _good_ , because he's an idiot, panicking over nothing, and he's fine, he's been saved, there's no reason to dwell on it anymore. One week is more than enough time to get over himself, his anger whispers in his ear while he feels like he's choking on his own fear. But as much he tries to convince himself that this is _good_ , that he deserves to be alone as long as he can't control himself, his heart is aching for the company and understanding he had spent these last years without. His heart begs for the heat of a campfire, and for the laugh and the soft smile of the bravest person he has ever met, telling him that it's okay to be vulnerable, that Eugene Fitzherbert is lovable not despite but with his weaknesses and sensibilities.

He wishes Rapunzel was here with him.

He can't ask it of her, though. The growing emptiness in his stomach keeps expanding by bursts, because every time he thinks he can fix this, his mind circles back to his death, and how it felt not to be. It's not a memory, really - the pain as he fought to breathe dragged on slowly, but he had been thankful for every additional seconds he had with Rapunzel. His death, in itself, is nothing. Just a blink of his eyes, then a warmth soothing over his wounds, and that was it.

But he died.

For a moment, he was no one, saw nothing, and the world kept turning despite it. That could have been _it_ ; the end of everything he was, with no one to miss him but Rapunzel - and how typical of him to die while taking with him the recently found happiness of the woman who least deserve it, finding a selfish comfort in her last words assuring him of how much he meant to her, how much his death would hurt her. A thief until the end, and without his second chance, that's all he would have ever been.

Eugene's eyes burn. The nervous tremors of his body make his head ache, and he hates it, he _hates_ it, he didn't remember how much it hurt to be afraid. Because that's what he is, right now - he's terrified, and he's alone, and he feels smaller than he has in a while, smaller than he allowed himself to be for years. He can't escape who he is anymore, he doesn't want to, because Rapunzel trusted him enough to give him a chance, and he loves her too much not to take it - and yet, for a second, he regrets not being able to hide behind Flynn Rider, drowning his problems in the adrenalin of a theft.

He feels cold now. Eugene slips under Rapunzel's covers, curling up in the hope of being able to hold himself together. He tries to focus on the sarcastic insults his mind keeps conjuring, because he must make a silly picture right now, hiding under a blanket like a kid - but it's to avoid thinking of being that kid once, crying about parents that wouldn't come and a future he didn't think he had. It's to avoid thinking about trying to curl up in pain, his blood in between the floorboards of Rapunzel's childhood home, hearing that she was ready to sacrifice everything because of his own weakness.

Rapunzel's covers smell like her. Eugene focuses on that, inhaling deeply. The fabric is soft under his hands, and he's- he feels safe here, he thinks. His body is still buzzing with anxiety, his mind still stuck on a loop of playing through all his hardest memories, but he's in a place that's unmistakably Rapunzel's, and it's enough to make him feel warmer.

Eugene closes his eyes, and breathes.

* * *

"I don't know, Pascal," Rapunzel sighs, one of her hands going to fiddle nervously with her short hair. "I searched everywhere for him! Usually, Eugene appears right after the end of my activities, but today..."

Her sentence trails off. Pascal squeaks sadly, rubbing against her cheek gently in the hope to comfort her. She's not sure her smile meets her eyes, but she's grateful for his help, as always - she's simply worried about Eugene. It hasn't been a week since she met him, but she _knows_ him, and she knows he wouldn't have made himself scarce if something wasn't wrong.

He wasn't in the library, where he took the habit to hang out these last days. He wasn't in the kitchens, or the throne room, or somewhere in the hallways, and despite not knowing the entire layout of the castle quite yet, Rapunzel is pretty sure that if he had simply forgotten about the time her lesson was ending, she would have found him by now. Which led her to think there was a problem. She asked a guard if he had seen Eugene, and the way his grip tightened on his weapon made her immediately regret it - she knew people were still suspicious of Eugene, still thought of him as a thief, and this guard was no exception; he immediately thought that Eugene was guilty of something. She barely held herself back from giving this guy a piece of her mind, but Eugene had asked her before not to defend him, saying that he deserved this animosity and that it was his job to redeem himself.

Still. Now, she's climbing up the stairs to her bedroom slowly, worry gnawing at her heart and anger growing in her mind. She doesn't know what happened to Eugene, but she knows something did; and she's so unbearably mad that her worry over him is mistaken as worry over her possessions, as if this newly found wealth means even half as much to her as Eugene does.

She pushes the door to her bedroom open while already thinking about going back down to search for him again - she only came here for a change of clothes, but she doesn't want to relax until she finds Eugene.

The form under her covers gives her a pause.

She glances at Pascal before moving forward silently, and the mop of brown hair she would know anywhere is enough to make her soften immediately.

"There you are," she says, but Eugene doesn't even stir. She wonders how tired he must have been to go sleep in her bedroom, and how cold, too, for covering himself with blankets - up to his head?

Maybe Rapunzel is being overly cautious. Maybe she worries too much about Eugene, especially when they are separated for too long. But it wasn't even last week that she saw him die, and it has haunted her every night since then - maybe this is silly, maybe she'll wake him up for no reason, but her mind tells her that something is wrong with this picture, and she wants to trust it.

She pulls the covers down to his chest. Eugene is sleeping with his arms tight around himself, his eyes puffier than they usually are - he looks like he just cried, and Rapunzel's heart twists at the realisation. Before she can do anything, Eugene scrunches his nose, blinking his red-rimmed eyes open and meeting her gaze immediately.

"Oh," he croaks. Then, his eyes widen and he scrambles to sit up, startling them both as he nearly falls out of the bed with his sudden movement. It's only Rapunzel's quick reflexes that save his face from meeting the ground, and they end up with him half above the ground in her arms, looking up at her with a slow blush climbing up his cheeks.

"Uh... hi?" he squeaks, looking dishevelled and embarrassed. Despite her worry, Rapunzel laughs and braces against the bed to raise Eugene up again, getting him close enough to kiss the tip of his nose.

"Hi," she smiles. She's not sure how she should bring up the tears, or even _if_ she should do it. She doesn't want Eugene to feel like he has to hide from her, but she's not convinced that pressuring him is the right choice either, and it's in these moments that she remembers for how little time they have known each other, and how much they still had to discover about the other. She also remembers how little she knows about dealing with people that aren’t Gothel, how easy it would be for her to say the wrong thing.

Eugene’s cheeks burn with embarrassment. He can’t look at her in the eyes, and she thinks that she’s willing to take that risk, in the hope of making him feel better.

"Are you… Are you okay?" she asks in the end, still hesitant. Eugene had comforted her multiple times since they came back to the castle; but it’s the first time _she’s_ in that position, and already, she feels like she’s not doing a good job of it.

“I’m- yeah,” Eugene laughs awkwardly, shifting on the bed with his hands on his lap. They’re trembling. When he sees that she’s looking at them, Eugene moves them under his legs, his smile way too wide to be genuine. “Totally fine! Finer than fine, even, the finest man to ever be… Well, you get it,” he babbles, before pursuing his lips in an attempt to make himself quiet.

Rapunzel sits down next to him, and silently tugs on his arms, until he lets her hold his hands in hers. His hands are twice as big as hers; usually, they’re warm, and strong, and comforting, and in the few days they spent together, Rapunzel had learnt to love his touch on her skin. When he brushed her hair out of her face, or when he stroked her cheek, or when he held her waist to bring her closer to him - Eugene’s hands were always tender, full of love in their every movement. But now, his fingertips are cold against her palms, and fine tremors are coursing through his ordinarily steady hands.

Gently, she touches his cheek, guiding his face higher so she can look at his eyes. The redness isn’t blatant; anyone that didn’t know him wouldn’t notice, but she had spent a lot of time looking into his eyes these last days.

“Eugene,” she says softly, “I- I know we haven’t known each other for too long but I… I care about you.”

“I care about you too.”

“I know you do,” she smiles, because if there’s one thing practically no one can contest, it’s that Eugene keeps putting her needs first.

In the storm that was her return to her kingdom, he was the anchor she sorely needed, the breath of fresh air when she thought she was drowning. But he needs her too. He’s scared too, she knows it, has seen glimpses of it when he thought she wasn’t looking, and she… She may be inadequate, but she wants to help him too.

"I- If you need to talk to me, you know you can, right?"

"I… Yeah," he sighs, lowering his gaze. "Yeah, I know, it's just that…"

He trails off. Rapunzel's mind is vicious enough to fill in the blanks ( _it's just that you're not enough, it's just that I can't trust someone like you, it's just that you-_ ) but she shuts it down as much as she can. She needs to be here for him.

"I'm not- good. At talking about my feelings, that is." Eugene attempts a laugh, but it falls flat, and he doesn't even try to hide it.

Rapunzel doesn't know what to do.

She's out of her depth, clearly. The only thing she wants is to make him feel better, but she's not… She's not used to helping people. She's used to fixing broken objects; used to sewing patches on worn dresses; used to touching up a painting that wasn't looking quite right. But people are not easy fixes, she's learning. Sometimes, they won't react like you thought they would, or even rationally, because they're more complex than that. Sometimes, there's nothing to be fixed at all.

And this, she learnt with Eugene. She learnt it after a nightmare, as he was reassuring her that she was okay, _he_ was okay, and it was fine to cry even if it didn't always make sense. He's amazing at making her feel safe and… And she may be out of her depth, but he wouldn't be, so the only thing she knows she has to do is try to offer him the same comfort he would give her.

What would Eugene do if it was her? What had he done the last time she cried?

"Do you want to talk about this?" she finally asks, because the first thing Eugene does is always to check what _she_ wants.

"I guess I have to," he laughs quietly, not looking at her.

"No." Gently, she cups his cheek, brushing his hair away from his eyes as he raises his head again. "No Eugene, you don't have to if you don't want to. It's your choice," she insists. His eyes widen a little, and it hurts to see how surprised he is that someone is respecting his boundaries.

Rapunzel silently swears to herself that she'll do everything she can so he's never surprised again by being listened to.

"What do _you_ want to do to feel better?"

"I…" He hesitates, his eyes searching her face quickly. She hopes he can see how serious she is. "Can we- hug? And not talk about this?"

He barely has the time to end this sentence that she's giving him the biggest bear hug she can. She'd be a little self-conscious about it, if it hadn't also pulled a genuine laugh out of him. She feels him settle against her, breathing in deeply, and she closes her eyes and squeezes him tighter. She's still worried - still curious, in some ways, but she thinks she did the right thing. One day, Eugene will feel comfortable enough to share, she's certain.

Rapunzel is okay with giving him as many hugs as he might want in the meantime.

**Author's Note:**

> I have so many thoughts about Eugene and hugs and how significant it would be for him to ASK Rapunzel for one but. being in Rapunzel's pov I couldn't develop that and i was very sad about it fghghgdj SO I'M TELLING YOU GUYS INSTEAD (that's also a warning because if you ask me about it in the comments I Will write an essay)
> 
> I'm still slammed with work from uni BUT i have another story I will post soon, so stay tuned ;) also my uni works are due for january 12th at the latest so maybe at that point I'll be dead but at least I'll hopefully have more time fgsgshdjsh
> 
> I hope you liked this!! Happy Holidays!!


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